AirAsia X, the long haul, low fare airline affiliate of AirAsia celebrated its 5th Anniversary at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) here today; with a frenzied fun-filled carnival for the public.

From its humble beginnings in 2007, with its first route from Kuala Lumpur to Gold Coast, Australia, the long-haul low fare airline today has a fleet comprising of nine Airbus A330 aircraft; the youngest fleet in the region and have carried over 8 million guests to 12 exciting destinations across Australia, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, China and Nepal.

AirAsia X CEO, Azran Osman-Rani said, “We pay tribute to our guests on our triumph as we celebrate our 5th Birthday today. It has been an amazing but challenging journey, and with strong perseverance; belief and passion, we have proven the skeptics wrong through the success of the long-haul, low fare model with many trailblazing FIRSTs in the industry.”

“AirAsia X is set to grow with an addition of 24 A330-300 aircraft between 2013 and 2017 which would further allow us to expand our network even further and we look forward to our new home base in KLIA2 which will provide enhanced ground facilities and services for our guests. Not one to rest on our laurels, we are prepared to catapult ourselves into the next 5 year period, with many more innovations and X-citing offerings in the pipeline.”

AirAsia X transformed the LCCT into a carnival affair, with various activities organized for the public. They were entertained with dance performances, clowns with balloons and tricks, tattoo sticker painting, photo opportunities with our talents dressed in multi traditional costumes from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Nepal, including radio cruisers appearance and freebies giveaways by the announcers.

The airline also kicked off a “Fantastic 5” campaign to mark this special occasion:

AirAsia X jointly with Gold Coast Tourism and Tune Hotels rewarded the first 5 guests who flew with us on our first flight to our first destination from Kuala Lumpur to Gold Coast and vice versa. The first 5 guests from Kuala Lumpur and Gold Coast received free return flights + accommodation to Gold coast/Kuala Lumpur.

AirAsia X launched its 5 hour sale in conjunction with its 5th Anniversary for its loyal guests who have flown with AirAsia X since its inception. The 5 hour sale begins on November 5, 2012 from 12:00 to 17:00 hrs (GMT+8) for travel between 1 January, 2013 and 31 March, 2013. Guests will be offered fares from as low as MYR195* on Economy and from as low as MYR755* on Premium to all AirAsia X destinations across Australia, China, Taiwan, Nepal, and Korea (excluding Japan).

AirAsia X supported by Tune Hotels launched a 3 week contest, a separate microsite created just for the occasion- a trivia on AirAsia X destinations, and its milestones for public participation. With a total of 25 tickets up for grabs, 5 Grand prize winners will stand a chance to receive a return flight + 4 additional return flights for their selected friends. Contest begins from 5 to 26th November 2012. Visit aaxmarksthespot.com to participate!

AirAsia X welcomes of our “Friendsy” friends arrival in conjunction with the AAX’s 5th Anniversary- Julie-Ann Foster, 42 is the winner of the “Friendsy” competition which ran on AirAsia’s Australian Facebook page in April 2012. Julie who entered 251 of her facebook friends in the competition was chosen as the winner of the contest. She takes away with her the entire A330-300 aircraft for her friends and family members to Kuala Lumpur from Sydney and celebrates AirAsia X’s 5th Anniversary onboard an entertaining flight with fun activities and games together with 30 Australian media. Her prize which is worth a total of AUD270,000 including flights + accommodation for 3 nights 4 days stay in Kuala Lumpur Ibis Styles Fraser Business Park is the first contest of this scale, organized by any long-haul low fare airline in Asia.

“Special thanks to our business partners, airport authorities and tourism bodies who believed in us and supported us in our journey including our AirAsia and AirAsia X Allstars; who has made this dream possible. We celebrate this special occasion by rewarding our guests and friends with great deals and new offerings and hope our guests are entertained as much as we are. We hope our guests will continue to further X-plore, and X-perience an X-tremely X-citing journey with us!, concluded Azran.

AirAsia X continues to live up to its tagline Now Everyone Can Fly X-tra Long. Together with its affiliate, the AirAsia Group, the airline will continue to offer guests unmatched connectivity from destinations across Asia Pacific to a vast network across South East Asia and beyond.

AirAsia keeps abreast with the social media community via their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Guests are able to receive real-time updates on latest promotions and interact with AirAsia via facebook.com/AirAsia and twitter.com/AirAsia.

Guests may also checkout airasia.com/travel3sixty online where AirAsia now showcases our monthly in-flight magazine in digital format and destination guides on bookshelves for fun reading and downloads. Travel 3Sixty° is primarily a travel related in-flight magazine which features articles that cover travel, fashion & beauty, health, sports, food and other up to date information on AirAsia and AirAsia X.